10 A few days ago, it was presented at the headquarters of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans in Barcelona,Linguistic Atlas of the Catalan Domain, A magnum opus of Catalan philology, of transcendental importance in the field of Romance studies. To ring the bells and set off fireworks as befitted such a momentous occasion, the IEC held an academic conference dedicated entirely to the completion of this new reference work. Throughout the presentations and roundtables that followed, the brand-new Linguistic Atlas of the Catalan Domain It was deservedly compared to other monumental works dedicated to our language, such as the General dictionary of the Catalan language, by Pompeu Fabra, the Etymological and supplementary dictionary, by Joan Coromines, or –of course– the Catalan-Valencian-Balearic dictionary, by Antoni M. Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, perhaps better known as theAlcover-Moll (whose new digitization we now celebrate, a tool that expands the version we had until now and makes it much more advanced, versatile, and rich in research possibilities). All these works are colossal bricks, enormous pieces of sandstone that have been assembled in the great edifice of Catalan, transforming it into the modern, living, powerful, and diverse language it is today, a fully-fledged European language, even though some may try to deny it recognition. Or, worse still, try to annihilate it.

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